Their first language is English (spoken with a British accent), their use of diminutives in Spanish eclipses mine, they eat Indian food as regularly as they eat tacos, one boy has long hair due to his Sikh heritage and because many a surfer in Sayulita has long hair.

Now I'm in the departures lounge at Mauritius airport. Beth has just left on her shining Emirates jet to Dubai to catch her connecting flight, leaving us lesser mortals at gate 2: Air Mauritius to Mumbai.

A sticking plaster needs to be applied to significant cuts in university funding by subsidising languages at University level: essentially helping those departments stay afloat at a difficult time. If that happens then UK businesses may still have a chance when it comes to keeping up with the ambitious BRIC countries. If not, then the UK economy may never fully recover.

When it comes to language learning, I start this new school term like all those other parents sending their kids to a new school: a little anxious, a little excited, and hopeful for a brighter linguistic future.

Bastardising the English language seems to be Europe's way of punishing Britain for its sins... "Whilst everyone else is making a large and valiant effort to communicate in their second or third language, the lazy, arrogant 'Anglo-Saxons' [sic] never bother to learn other languages and are linguistically inept in any case"

It's all a matter of 'comfort zone': the native language is the supreme example of 'comfort zone'... Well known vocabulary, well integrated grammar structures and all the unspoken cultural rules that accompany communication. All of the above disappears when faced with learning a new language.

So you're going on a Year Abroad. You're probably crazy excited but really effing scared. You might still be slightly in denial that it's happening at all... whether you're studying or working, and wherever you spend the year, here are four failsafe ways to make the most of it.

Our language courses need to focus on language fluency, perhaps by other subjects being taught in the language, thus killing two birds with the one Rosetta stone, so to speak. Starting to learn them a bit earlier wouldn't exactly hurt either. We already make such an effort to raise global citizens, children of the world - let's now make sure their voices can be heard, a

Businesses are struggling to fill the skills gap but could lack of English language training be the problem? According to the government's skills watchdog, a sharp rise in skills shortages in the UK threatens to hold back the pace of recovery in parts of the economy.

It's a toughie. Famously tongue-tied in foreign languages, and notwithstanding the 200+ languages widely spoken in London and Manchester alone, the fact is the UK needs more people speaking more languages.

In a previous article for the Huffington Post I went public about my language shame; well I am pleased to announce that I am (hopefully) on the course to rectifying this rather embarrassing situation. I have decided to start taking language classes so I should be able to speak something other than English...

Having recently moved overseas to work as an intern, I have been spending some time pondering what have been the most awkward moments of adapting to life in Belgium. Now I have given this some serious thought...

The UK's lack of foreign language skills has become almost a cliché. But that doesn't make it a laughing matter. If we don't have the skills to get by for a few days in the sun, what hope do we have when it comes to the serious business of international trade?

For students everywhere it has always provided a liberating period between one busy university year and an even busier year to come. Consequently, students have never failed to embrace the many benefits of the summer break. However, with the controversial rise in tuition fees to £9000 per year the necessity of university has been debated.

It's time to let go of the idea that English 'belongs' to anyone - let alone English speaking countries. "No way!" as the rest of the world regularly exclaims - after all far more people now speak English around the world as a second language than as their mother tongue.

Xin Nian Kuai Le, Gong Xi Fa Cai! If you didn't understand that, you've just missed out on the chance to make friends this week. And you're not alone. The Mandarin Chinese language is becoming more and more important for the UK because, quite simply, China is becoming more and more important on the world's stage.

I had hoped to find poems in the Arctic. I did not expect to return with a whole new language. Greenlandic had become the key to representing the Arctic for me, and I felt I owed it an acknowledgement. I selected the 12 most evocative words that Beathe had taught me, and compiled my own abecedarium.